hopes/dooms du jour, November 2003 + Dec.1
[Commentary] ©2003 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 117, Harvard Sq, Cambridge MA 02238 USA (617) 623-8080 - HOMEPAGE

11/29-12/01/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  (# diff.visitors to any of our 671 files, F Sa Su: 482,471,564 - wk's daily avg 608
**  we offer free consulting to novelists or playwrights setting stories in timesizing future-worlds**
headlines from hell (tm)  • 35m Americans now below poverty line & 44m without health insurance  
+ eroding retirement: • biotech drug firms gleeful that Medicare bill will pay their extortionate prices
+ 1 DOWNsizing, reported in WSJ &/or NY Times: Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 21% workforce cut (1470 jobs lost) as Stolt Offshore gets hysterical about continuing losses, instead of just cutting its workweek 21% (to four 8-hour days for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone working, earning, confident & spending at least 79% as much as before    
+ 3 FLUFFsizings = makework rampant: • UK toxic dismantling firm tries to mitigate public impact by claiming creation of 200 temporary 'jobs'   • analysts think households will keep up economy-propping spending because former luxuries are now necessities & credit is infinite     • prairie towns desperately try to attract jobs
• poppy acreage in Afghanistan for making drugs has increased 3600% during 2 years of US occupation
vs.  hope du jourtm - the only thing we haven't tried lately  
TIMEsizing = strategic hope: • AFL-CIO itself is doing 2 days of unpaid leave to avoid layoffs
• Bombardier cuts to 4-day workweek but employees get pay help from unemployment insurance
• worksharing seemed French to the French so 35-hour workweek became part of their culture
• S.Korean government's phased introduction of 4-hour workweek cut (from 44 to 40) begins next year & takes 7 years   • plus 4 more weekend worktime stories
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 55
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 6 DOWNsizings, over 3906 jobcuts   • 1 homelessness story 
• 3 bankruptcies   • 6 eroding-retirement stories   • 2 prison stories  
vs.  hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 24 TIMEsizing items (325 jobs saved)  • 2 UPsizings  • 6 makework items (22800+ new 'jobs')
{{ ytd: 751 timsizngs (20595+ new or sav'd jobs) + 92 upsizngs (73945+ new jobs) + 114 makwrk (269543+ 'jobs') =
tot: 364083 = 28% of cuts VERSUS 647 dnsz (1282965+ cuts) + 303 bkrp ($23.2B+) +28 homlss +85 prisn +47 kills }}

11/28/2003 fri
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - - all 670 files, # visitors yesterday 11/27/thu:454 (11/28/02/thu: 469 incl.spidrs) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • Wall Street Journal advocates breaking immigration laws
+ eroding retirement: • scant support is seen for private-sector rivals of Medicare
• elderly research chimps to get $29 million retirement community in Shreveport, Louisiana
+ 1 DOWNsizing reported in WSJ &/or NY Times: • unspecified jobcuts by French diplomatic corps
+ 2 bankruptcies reported in Wall Street Journal & NY Times: • Gingiss Group   • Onse Telecom
+ 1 prison item: • pattern of workers' comp abuse emerges among NY state prison guards
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Bombardier plant in northern Ontario offers to save ~325 jobs by timesizing, not downsizing
+ headlines from heaven in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT): = random glimmers:
• 1 UPsizing - unspecified new jobs as Areva invest $3.5B in new uranium plant in France
• Times reader says, get money out of politics!

11/27/2003 thu
- no Wall Street Journal today due to US Thanksgiving holiday -
- all 670 files, # visitors yesterday 11/26/wed:655 (11/27/02/wed: 691 incl.spidrs) -
eroding retirement: • FASB moves to make firms disclose more of their pension shenanigans along the way
• private sector has not controlled healthcare costs better than government-run Medicare over last 30 years
+ homelessness in the news: • in Y2000, homeless youths in the USA numbered 930,000 & increasing 28%/yr
+ 1 mega PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • pork in recent legislation saves or creates 22,600 'jobs'
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Times reader refutes the refuter of the time critics
• EU panel chief rules out longer worktime
• and 5 other worktime stories
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers:
• 1 UPsizing - unspecified new jobs & location at $5B Int'l Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

11/26/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - all 670 files, # visitors yesterday 11/25/tue:782 (11/26/02/tue: 861 incl.spidrs) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • Bush's whole 'antiterrorism' effort is only fighting fire with gasoline  
• 1995-2001, hunger in developing world spread across 4½ million more people per year
+ 2 DOWNsizings, totaling 430 lost jobs reported in WSJ &/or NY Times:
• 430 jobcuts by BC Rail   • unspecified cuts by Vanguarde Media
+ 1 bankruptcy reported in WSJ/NYT:  • Vanguarde Media  
+ eroding retirement: • GOP, with AARP complicity, rams through Medicare 'donut' which sets
up trade-in of 'Chevy' drug benefits for 'Yugo'   • and snatching away even of 'Yugo' in future
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires
• central England pushes for work-life balance
• negotiating tricks for a 4-day workweek in Australia
• biz group in New Zealand whines about 4th week of vacation

11/25/2003 tue
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - all 670 files, # visitors yesterday 11/24/mon:851 (11/25/02/mon: 932 incl.spidrs) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • consumer complaints soared in 2002
• bigtime hush money is common in ousters over alleged ethics violations  
+ 2 DOWNsizings, totaling 2006 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 2.9% workforce cut (2000 jobs lost) as Sprint contends with falling LD sales by chipping away more of its markets, instead of just trimming its workweek 2.9% (15 minutes a day for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone working, earning, confident & buying at least 97.1% as many long distance services as usual     • 6 jobcuts by FCB HealthCare  
+ 1 prison item: • Massachusetts prisons lead Mass. colleges in state funding
+ 1 mega PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • GOP-led sticker-shock
Congress boosts national debt by ¾ trillion over next decade
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• desire for work-life balance & shorter worktime grows in Britain
• UK truckers to cut current 55-hr wk to 52 in 2004 & 48 in 2005
• Brits currently have longest workhours in Europe, many of them unpaid
• in US, congressional committee sidesteps Congress to clobber overtime law
• average American now works 350 hours a year - 9 weeks longer than average European

11/22-24/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
(# diff. visitors to any of our 670 files, F Sa Su: 692,406,559 - wk's daily avg 772
headlines from hell (tm)  • GOP leaders find it's payback time for autocratic last-minute style  
• GOP strains to pass legislation inconsistent with its self-professed limited-gov't principles  
• neo-con 'diplomacy' - WSJ editor calls Canada 'rinky-dink nation'   • Venezuela sinks again
+ 2 bankruptcies in WSJ/NYT:  • Republic Engineered Products Holdings   • Drax Holdings
+ 1 work-linked suicide: • Jonathan Brandis, 27, of SeaQuest, hustled thru string of roles from age 6
+ near-homelessness in the news: • some who help the homeless verge on homelessness themselves
+ 1 FLUFFsizing = makework rampant: • we waste at least $400B, 12% of total, on functionless healthcare plan duplication & paperwork that could fund Medicare model for ALL Americans   • Army is planning for 100,000 G.I.'s in Iraq till 2006 - mustn't demobilize them into tight job market till BushWah gets re-appointed in 2004!
vs.  hope du jourtm - the only thing we haven't tried lately  
TIMEsizing = strategic hope: • longer workweeks just waste time  
• Britain's long-hours culture blends back into slavery with billions of hrs of unpaid overtime  
• new moves to fight drowsy driving, but exploitative trucking culture defies regulation
+ random hope/headlines from heaven/glimmers of intelligence:
• 1 UPsizing - Krispy Kreme to open 27 factory stores in 10 new markets  
• following Arizona in 2000, Dems in Michigan will have online voting option
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 61
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 9 DOWNsizings, over 29,815 jobcuts   • 10 eroding-retirement stories 
• 5 bankruptcies  • 2 homelessness stories  • 2 prison stories  • 1 work-linked suicide
vs.  hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 18 TIMEsizing items  • 2 UPsizings (18000+ jobs)  • 13 makework cases (16000+ new 'jobs')
{{ ytd: 727 timsizngs (20270+ new or sav'd jobs) + 90 upsizngs (73945+ new jobs) + 108 makwrk (246743+ 'jobs') =
tot: 340958 = 27% of cuts VERSUS 641 dnsz (1279059+ cuts)+ 300 bkrp ($23.2B+) +27 homlss +83 prisn +47 kills }}

11/21/2003 fri
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - all 669 files, # visitors yesterday 11/20/thu:857 (11/21/02/thu: 861 incl.spidrs) -
4 DOWNsizings, totaling 1115 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT): • 500 jobcuts by Epcos   • 315 cuts by GST Autoleather   • 300 by Temple-Inland  
• unspecified cuts by Osaka Mercantile Exchange
+ eroding retirement: • big-buck-estate taxes sharply lower on Jan.1   • even Wall Street Journal is now bashing new Medicare bill   • United Airlines uses threat of staying bankrupt to push delay of $2B required pension contributions over next 3 years
+ 2 prison items: • N.M. goes for drug-purging saunas, while • Wisc. stuffs 22000 inmates in prisons for 16000
+ 4 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • AMD gets $820m from all levels of German gov't to create 1000 more "jobs" in Dresden   • Congress is falling for forest thinning   • New Mexico prisons to seek $800k federal grant for group therapy & cleansing saunas   • GOP-led Congress loads $284B of pork into spending bill & can't even pay our soldiers on time
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• US overtime rules need updating, but not in this mean-spirited way
• Frito-Lay's Washington-state plant tries to avoid overtime with staggered workweeks
• US Senate candidate, Democrat Mike Layne in Alaska, wants 32-hr workweeks (4x8?)
• analysts imagine that with East Germany's longer workweek, they've stanched outsourcing
• Philippines proposes to limit child labor to 20 daylight hours a week

11/20/2003 thu
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - all 668 files, # visitors yesterday 11/19/wed:886 (11/20/02/wed: 963 incl.spidrs) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • your next raise, if any, will probably be modest   • Japan sends ground troops to Iraq   • American Airlines CEO forced to quit in April after hiding executive perks from unions while asking them to take deep paycuts   • accts using profit-sharing lingo to describe obligations   • House waters down bill to clean up mutual funds
+ 1 DOWNsizing, totaling unspecified lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• unspecified jobcuts as Johnson & Johnson centralizes functions
+ eroding retirement: • big-buck-estate taxes sharply lower on Jan.1   • even the Wall Street Journal starts bashing new Medicare bill   • United Airlines uses threat of staying bankrupt to push to delay $2B required pension contributions over next 3 years
+ near-homelessness in the news: • NYT Neediest Cases Fund averts
homelessness for family impoverished by lateness of post-9/11 military pay
+ 3 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • Bush calls up another 15,000 ducks for target practice in Iraq  
• Interior Dept. is not requiring companies to pay fair market value for use of public lands & resources  
• Congress votes $3.7B to create permanent Office of Nanotechnology
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• already overworked employees now face pressure to work on company charities = unpaid PR
• 25% of Canadians are logging more than 50 hours/week, harder & longer than decade ago
• British nurses want shorter hours or they'll let the nurse shortage roll
• Bangladeshi garment workers toil 70 hours/week @ 20¢/hr
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• stocks do better under Democratic presidents than Republican  
• spending bill would restore tighter media ownership cap

11/19/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - all 668 files, # visitors yesterday 11/18/tue:909 (11/19/02/tue: 1014 incl.spidrs) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • terrorist threat is outpacing government response   • Japan sends ground troops to Iraq   • real-estate taxes rise as states & cities need close Bush-opened budget gaps   • office pilferage lives  
+ 2 DOWNsizings, totaling 3,300 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 10% workforce cut (3000 jobs lost) as AT&T Wireless outsources jobs (& markets!) to India, instead of just trimming its workweek 10% (45 minutes a day for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying at least 90% as many wireless services as usual     • 300 jobcuts by WestPoint Stevens
+ 1 liquidation reported in WSJ/NYT:  • Friends Ivory & Sime Trust  
+ eroding retirement: • employee 401k participation is dropping  
• Medicare drug bill - glass half full or half empty?
+ 1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • Congress spurs racehorse sales with tax breaks
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Jefferson tried lose slavery & its unmentioned component - unlimited worktime
• Volkswagen saved 2000 jobs this summer by cutting hours, not staff
• coddled UK employers call EU's 48-hour workweek cap 'disaster'
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• 1 UPsizing - 18,000 new Wal-Jobs in Calif. as Wal-Mart opens 40 supercenters over 4 years
• free trade withers from 4 blows in one day   • Massachusetts koshers gay marriage

11/18/2003 tue
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - all 668 files, # visitors yesterday 11/17/mon:1092 (11/18/02/mon: 958 incl.spidrs) -
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 25,400 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 10% workforce cut (21,600 jobs lost) as Verizon phone co. offers buyout expecting 12000 takers & gets flood of employees eager to leave, instead of just trimming its workweek 10% (45 minutes a day for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying at least 90% as many phone services as before     • 3800 jobcuts by Toys 'R' Us
+ 2 bankruptcies reported in WSJ/NYT:  • Mississippi Chemical   • Black Sea & Baltic General Insurance
+ eroding retirement: • AARP in conflict of interest betrays its members & rubberstamps Bush Medicare phase-out Step 1   • companies across US have been cutting or killing their pension programs (& other benefits...)
+ 3 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • Congress is working on $700B pork-filled 'energy bill' while deficit widens to $70B in Oct.   • the IMF is into us for nearly $2B this year   • auto & energy industries want taxpayer handouts to develop fuel cells
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• most full-time US employees can’t remember the last time they worked a 40-hour workweek
• industry assoc. pleads for UK to join race-to-bottom with 'choice' of over-48-hour workweek
• Britain is only EU member that still has opt-out of 'uncompetitive' 48-hr-workweek 'straitjacket'
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• China set to act on auto fuel economy with tougher standards than U.S.’
• unauthorized receipts by Canada's press baron may trigger big media deconsolidation

11/15-17/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
(# diff. visitors to any of our 668 files, F Sa Su: 731,475,774 - wk's daily avg 792
headlines from hell (tm)  • America is getting Wal-Martized   • $12B judgement vs. Wal-Mart for cheating State of Alabama reflects wider public anger at corporations   • retail sinks 0.3%   • Pentagon sees need for new 'social intelligence' key to victory (e.g., old State Dept?)   • charities' misbehavior is turning off donors  
+ eroding retirement: • 1000s of pensioners win additional $239m after suing Xerox for miscalculating benefits
+ 6 DOWNsizings, totaling 5908 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT): • 4000 jobcuts by big-bailout bank, Resona Holdings, in Japan   • 850 by Cardinal Health
• 6% workforce cut (400 more jobs lost) as AT&T Wireless cuts costs (& subscribers), instead of cutting its workweek 6% (½-hour a day for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone working, earning, confident & spending at least 94% as much on wireless services as before    
• 300 jobcuts by Tellabs   • 258 by Walt Disney   • 100 by Adobe Systems
+ 3 bankruptcies in WSJ/NYT:  • Metatec   • Phylos   • Reciprocal of America (liquidation)
+ 1 prison story: • debate flares over keeping sex offenders jailed as patients after terms are up
+ 1 work-linked mass murder: • 16 die in Shaanxi, China, after envious BBQer poisons food at rival's stand
+ homelessness in the news: • rising demand squeezes food banks while operators offered lessons in Chicago
+ 1 FLUFFsizing = makework rampant: • 18 Utah cities plan $470m public-works project
vs.  hope du jourtm - the only thing we haven't tried lately =  
TIMEsizing = strategic hope in the weekend news:
• Indiana manufacturers think twice before laying off employees & many trim hours, not jobs  
• Wal-Mart modifies hours relative to sales but jumps around on shifts & pays rock bottom  
• Australian companies entice staff with shorter hours
+ random hope/headlines from heaven/glimmers of intelligence: • Germany begins nuclear phaseout   • Michael Moore draws crowds there   • if Bush won't enforce the law, the states will   • Dean should ignore advice from opponents   • 4 Israeli ex-ShinBet chiefs denounce Sharon
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 86
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 10 DOWNsizings, over 14,608 jobcuts  • 10 bankruptcies owing over $171m 
• 12 eroding-retirement stories  • 1 homelessness story  • 2 prison stories  • 1 work-linked killing
vs.  hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 22 TIMEsizing items   • 1 UPsizing (1500+ jobs)   • 6 makework cases (24145+ 'jobs')
{{ ytd: 709 timsizngs (20270+ new or sav'd jobs) + 88 upsizngs (55945+ new jobs) + 95 makwrk (230743+ 'jobs') =
total 306958 = 25% of cuts VERSUS 632 dnsz (1249244+ cuts) + 295 bkrp ($23.2B+) +25 homlss +81 prisn +46 kills }}

11/14/2003 fri
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - all 667 files, # visitors yesterday 11/13/thu: 858 (11/14/2002/thu: 829 incl.spiders) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • GIs short-changed or paid late
• Wal-Mart misses estimates 1st time in 9 yrs (but couldn't happen to more deserving-of-bad-news firm)
+ 1 DOWNsizing, totaling 200 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 67% workforce cut (200 jobs lost) as Franklin Mint slashes costs (& customers), instead of cutting its workweek 67% (to four 3¼-hour days for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & spending at least 33% as much as before
+ 3 bankruptcies reported in WSJ/NYT:  • StarBand Comms owing $171m   • Smart World Techs   • Raymark
+ eroding retirement: • employers denounce delay of OK to loot pensions   • latest on the assault on Medicare
+ 1 prison item: • Calif. parole system a billion$ flop - 3000 parolees rejailed in 1980, 90,000 in Y2K
+ 1 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • 24,143 new non-American 'jobs' in "postwar" Iraq
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• US employers are pushing employees to work longer hours
& OT is rising - if you still have a full-time job or any job at all
• work-life balance is shaping up as the Next Big Thing in Australia
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• 1 UPsizing, 1400 new grueling jobs in Uganda created by Tri-Star Apparel of Sri Lanka, lured by US African Growth & Opportunity Act

11/13/2003 thu
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - all 667 files, # visitors yesterday 11/12/wed: 1018 (incl.spiders? ending, today starting new 908 excl.spiders?) (11/13/2002/wed: 925 incl.spiders?) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • 'deal' reached on 9/11 papers but only 'under tight control'   • Iraq policy in crisis  
• Bush has blown away America's 3 boasts - good elections, companies, financial markets   • Cheney's parallel
universe is Bizarro world where no doubts exist   • 'improving' economy pushes Bush's rating back above 50%
• 59% of EU citizens now consider Sharon greatest "threat to world peace"   • RC bishops renew drive vs. Pill
+ 1 DOWNsizing, totaling 1500 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 50% workforce cut (1500 jobs lost) as Ching Hai Electric Works mixes in the intramural race to the bottom within China, instead of cutting its workweek 50% (to four 5-hour days for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & spending at least 50% as much as before    
+ 2 bankruptcies reported in WSJ/NYT:  • J.A. Jones   • Cross Media Marketing
+ eroding retirement: • nearly half the workers leaving jobs last year cashed out 401k plans   • tentative Medicare pact offers some drug benefits to elderly   • Medicare and Medicaid will spend $82B/yr by 2010 to treat Alzheimer's   • only 15% of people born 1946-64 expect to receive an inheritance   • North Carolina orders pension contract review of largest publicly traded US money manager for improper mutual fund trading   • Delta forecast worse than expected due to pension obligations from senior pilots' exodus
+ 3 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • Halliburton may not be corrupt but officials from Cheney down don't seem to want to take steps necessary to avoid appearance of conflict of interest - so 'if it walks like a duck...'  
• current version of Medicare bill proposes to lure private health plans into Medicare with billions of taxpayer $$ in new federal subsidies   • & in Japan, another zillion$/yen bank bailout in the offing
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Thomasville Furniture has been on 4-day workweek to delay & reduce layoffs  
• EU to attack UK over long work hours   • US Supreme Court backs employers who want to incentivize older employees to retire later, with shorter working hours  
• many work 18-hour days at Ching Hai Electric Works in China  
• 1000s file class action vs. Cptr Svcs for refusing to pay overtime  
• 'phased retirement' concept in Canada allows 3-4 day workweeks

11/12/2003 wed
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 - all 666 files (9/9/99), # visitors yesterday 11/11/tue: 1023 (new: 901) (11/12/2002/tue: 926) -
1 bankruptcy reported in WSJ/NYT:  • last remains
of I.G. FarbenIndustrie, maker of Zyklon gas for Nazi death chambers  
+ eroding retirement: • CNF Trucking, US Airways, Bethehem Steel, Polaroid, Enron - many firms are looting their employees' pensions, and  • the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. warns against giving any more 'rope'
+ 1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • Sen.Grassley (R, Iowa) is holding up federal energy bill
with $225m appropriation for eco-ed rain forest project in his home state
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• DT proposes cutting hours by 10% to save 10,000 jobs
• Lufthansa has trimmed staff working hours to reduce jobcuts
• shorter shifts, fewer accidents, really 'bad' for trucking companies?  
• 8 in 10 Americans, overworked, plan to look for new job if & when downturn ends
• 40-hour week a dream for most   • fancy analysts still decry France's 35-hour workweek
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• 1 UPsizing, 100 new jobs - GM sets up $21m auto research lab in Bangalore

11/11/2003 tue
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 665 files, # visitors yesterday 11/10/mon: 1006 (11/11/2002/mon: 880) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • Bush supports Halliburton with money, but not our troops
• Wall Street Journal institutionalizes 'blaming the consumer' in Cranky Consumer column
• feds count 1300 cases of radioactive material lost, stolen or dumped within US in last 5 years
• Europe-bashing or -pitying rolls on while Europeans enjoy best quality of life via most free time
+ 2 DOWNsizings, totaling 7000 lost jobs reported in WSJ &/or NY Times: • 6000 jobcuts by Infineon
• 3% workforce cut (1000 jobs lost) as CSX RR flattens its management structure (& its markets), instead of just cutting its workweek 3% (15 minutes a day for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & spending 97% as much as before    
+ bankruptcy scare reported in WSJ/NYT:  • City of Pittsburgh seeks help to avoid bankruptcy  
+ eroding retirement: • now an acctg firm is marketing a loophole for turning Roth IRAs into infinite tax shelters
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Illinois' Henderson County believes 'better to trim hours than staff'  
• views on proposed overtime law from New Jersey & • Florida  
• anxious for 4th week of vacation in New Zealand
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• Oracle may drop takeover bid for PeopleSoft over refund offer (ie: 'poison pill')

11/08-10/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
(# diff. visitors to any of our 665 files, F Sa Su: 792,574,669 - wk's daily avg 855
headlines from hell (tm)  • consumer debt load for average US family has tripled in just one generation   • unemployment high throughout G7   • charitable foundation leaders are really helping themselves  • EPA decides to help corporate secrecy by dropping probes into 140 powerplants   • Wal-Mart slime evokes lawsuit from 9 immigrant employees   • Bush moves to block money for troops tortured in '91 war
eroding retirement: • TIAA-CREFF CEO Herbert Allison to get at least $9m this year  
• meanwhile the GOP strains to subvert Medicare  • by privatizing it, like they'd love to do
with Soc Sec despite stock bust   • and Ireland already has a privatized version that ain't sellin'
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 600 +?? lost jobs cited in WSJ &/or NYT:  • 500 jobcuts at Montana Power  
• 1.5% workforce cut (100 jobs lost) as Bank of America cuts costs (& its own best markets), instead of just trimming its workweek by 1.5% (7 minutes a day for whole company, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone working, earning, confident & banking 98.5% as much as usual   • unspecified local jobs lost as US closes 3 diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia
+ 1 bankruptcy in WSJ/NYT:  • Bridgeport Holdings  
+ 1 prison story: • cash-strapped states learn it's cheaper to be smart on crime than tough on crime
+ 4 FLUFFsizings = makework rampant: • Bush administration to select as few as 3 prime contractors in Iraq   • welfare for agribusiness comes under fire   • states & cities in bidding war for shrunken pool of jobs - Indiana(polis) sinks $320m into United Air - which then takes off   • Montana sinks $2m loan into Continental Pit
vs.  hope du jourtm - the only thing we haven't tried lately =  
TIMEsizing = strategic hope in the weekend news:
• Ford plant in Belgium still discussing shorter hours to save jobs  
• example of longer hours = 96-hr workweek of Geo. Washington's slaves  
• examples of job sharing  
• examples of refusing to give up free time to get ahead on the job  
• examples of flexible worktime that extend to shorter worktime  
• Australian feminist frets about labor shortage years from now
+ random hope/headlines from heaven/glimmers of intelligence:
• when it comes to spreading democracy, let's just lead by example...if we can  
• 126,000 more jobs in Oct. (but still not the 200,000 we need just as replacements)  
• Ken Lay (Enron) reliquishes deathgrip on documents - Cheney (energy taskforce) next?  
• Bayer will split in two, meaning more jobs
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 73
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 13 DOWNsizings, over 17,105 jobcuts 
• 7 bankruptcies   • 4 eroding-retirement stories  • 2 prison stories  • 2 work-linked killings
vs.  hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 21 TIMEsizing items   • 0 UPsizings   + clouded hope: • 7 makework cases (3000+ new 'jobs')
{{ ytd: 687 timsizngs (20270+ new or sav'd jobs) + 87 upsizngs (54445+ new jobs) + 89 makwrk (206600+ 'jobs') =
total 281315 = 23% of cuts VERSUS 622 dnsz (1234636+ cuts) + 285 bkrp ($23.1B+) +24 homlss +80 prisn +45 kills }}

11/07/2003 fri
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 664 files, # visitors yesterday 11/06/thu: 986 (11/07/2002/thu: 874) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • with piddling middle-class taxcuts spent, retailers report slower gains
• Texas has been fudging its schools reportcard, on dropouts & now on school violence
+ 2 DOWNsizings, totaling 580 lost jobs reported in WSJ &/or NY Times:
• 45% workforce cut (490 jobs lost) as Johnson & Johnson unsecures its own best markets by shifting to outside contractors, instead of just cutting its workweek up to 45% (to four 5½-hour days for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone working, earning, confident & spending at least 55% as much as before     • 90 jobcuts by GE
+ 5 bankruptcies reported in WSJ/NYT:  • Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root unit   • Alliance
Communications   • Chi-Chi's   • JB Stores   • Radio Unica Communications
+ 1 prison item: • now widely disseminated in Mass., criminal  
records make it hard for ex-offenders to get jobs & go straight
+ 2 work-linked killing stories: • U.S. has roughly 700 workplace homicides a year  
• armed trucker stops by Midwest branch of his old employer, kills two, wounds three
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Connecticut manufacturers trim hours before resorting to chopping jobs
• despite widespread 35-hr week,Germany still practices stick, not carrot, in cutting joblessness
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope: • Senators & Attys Gen seek investigation of EPA rules-change that drops 50 lawsuits vs. polluters   • Bush Sr. sends message about Bush Jr's policies - 1st American to receive George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service is...Ted Kennedy, one of Junior's biggest war critics   • employment expected to be up, but last big hurdle not even in decision-makers' sights   • Australian unemployment falls to 5.6%   • Indian states get serious about population-stabilizing policy   • Basque Parliament to debate independence plan   • Brazil follows Thailand in shaking off IMF   • CEOs set for merger frenzy - but investors finally get wise & clobber merger-talk stox

11/06/2003 thu
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 664 files, # visitors yesterday 11/05/wed: 940 (11/06/2002/wed: 898) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • Bush dictates disposition inside women's bodies, but judge suspends enforcement
• both parties in Congress obsess about what we're already doing too much of = saving,
by concentrating so much of the nation's income in the top brackets
+ 1 DOWNsizing reported in WSJ &/or NY Times:
• unspecified cuts as AmerisourceBergen consolidates & severs
+ 1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • Pentagon starts call-up of more
Reserves, National Guard & Marines - say, 3000 new 'jobs' for next spring
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Malta shipyards give 40 hours pay for 35 hours work  
• Ford unions in Belgium eager for timesizing to avoid downsizing  
• Miami journalist claims 20-somethings work to live, not live to work
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• index of low-wage service industries rises, & orders from factories too
(probably for more computers & robots - & they aren't consumers)

11/05/2003 wed
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 664 files, # visitors yesterday 11/04/tue: 1019 (11/05/2002/tue: 977) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • prez candidates now need $50m   • CBS gagged from screening Reagans
• Supreme Court strains to break administration secrecy on immigrant detained after 9/11  
• federal regulators decide not to ban arsenic-treated lumber in playgrounds  
• record insider bearishness despite stock gains   • Wal-Mart probed for hiring illegal workers
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 9250 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 3% workforce cut (7200 jobs lost) as Tyco overreacts to loss with self-mutilation, instead of just trimming its workweek 3% (15 minutes a day for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & spending 97% as much as before     • 1900 positions relocated or severed by Southwest Airlines   • 150 jobcuts by Lubrizol  
+ 1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • Japan is sinking 767B yen into another artificial-island airport
- here's hoping this one (Central Japan International) doesn't sink too - like the previous one (Kansai)
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• we need to 'take back our time' from dark evenings by keeping daylight savings  
• Nielsen's disappearing young male viewers due to heightened pressure to work late?  
• NYT covers overwork in nursing   • survey reflects lengthening workhours in America  
• ArvinMeritor has flexibility to temporarily reduce hours, not staff, embodied in labor contract
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• hybrids star at Tokyo auto show - 600 miles per tank

11/04/2003 tue
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 663 files, # visitors yesterday 11/03/mon: 1008 (11/04/2002/mon: 911) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • manufacturing rises, consumer spending sinks
• Iraq 'economy' stagnant, propped up by US megabucks, like Afghanistan & Israel...
+ 4 DOWNsizings, totaling 6675 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 25% workforce cut (3875 jobs lost) as Applica electric consumer goods amputates itself & moves work to China, instead of just trimming its workweek 25% (to five 6-hour days for everyone, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 75% as much stuff as before     • 2700 jobs zapped by Alitalia   • 100 cuts by Elizabeth Arden   • unspecified cuts by Chautauqua County NY
+ 1 bankruptcy reported in Wall Street Journal & NY Times: • Redback Networks  
+ 1 clinched PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • Congress approved $87.5 billion for Iraq & Afghanistan
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Deutsche Telekom & Opel cut workweek from 38 to 35 hours to reduce layoffs
• Lufthansa cut hours, nor jobs, last spring   • UK & Canada employees squawk vs. longer hours
• Mich. public employees reverse timesizing = 40h work for 38h pay, but get to 'bank' the diff
• Jackson, Miss., lawfirm specializes in getting back-overtime pay for qualified employees

11/01-03/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
(# diff. visitors to any of our 663 files, F Sa Su: 776,532,659 - wk's daily avg 855
headlines from hell (tm)  • US innovation jeopardized by R&D cutbacks  
• consumer spending loses momentum   • more US families go hungry  
• lawsuits retrieve none of Enron bonuses & HealthSouth execs grab $½B for lawyers before pleading guilty  
• WSJ nyaa-nyaas Europe & pressures 'party poopers' instead of looking at subsurface disaster buildup
+ eroding retirement: • 'bash pensions' plague spreads to Israel
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 2550 +?? lost jobs cited in WSJ &/or NYT: 
• 3.9% workforce cut (2000 jobs lost) as ChevronTexaco streamlines itself (& its markets), instead of trimming its workweek by 3.9% (19 minutes a day for whole company, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 96.1% as much gas as usual   • 450 +?? cuts by Oneida   • 100 by Everlast Worldwide
+ 4 bankruptcies in WSJ/NYT:  • Alliance Communications  
• AM Communications   • American Commercial Lines   • Eveleth Mines
+ 1 prison story: • prison has become America's default mental health treatment
- 3 times more mentally ill in prisons than mental hospitals, 16% of prison population
+ 2 FLUFFsizings = makework rampant: • calls to jihad draw hundreds of militants to Iraq
• worst mismgmt in higher-ed history = Silber pays Goldin $2m to walk away from BU presiduncy
vs.  hope du jourtm - the only thing we haven't tried lately =  
TIMEsizing = strategic hope in the weekend news:
• Finland, with 30 days of yearly vacation, beat U.S. in competitiveness for last 3 years
• Opel & Telekom plan the obvious - trim hours to save jobs - but some try to ridicule
• if Germany's troubles stem from favoring employees, how come mean US has same troubles?
• EU members have shorter hrs than candidate-nations  • Time Day article late cuz journalist busy
• US execs locked into megahours   • von Mises follower flails against worksharing
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 71
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 14 DOWNsizings, over 39,302 jobcuts 
• 12 bankruptcies   • 1 eroding-retirement story  • 2 prison stories 
vs.  hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 35 TIMEsizing items (?? jobs saved)   • 0 UPsizings    + clouded hope: • 9 makework cases
{{ ytd: 666 timsizngs (20270+ new or sav'd jobs) + 87 upsizngs (54445+ new jobs) + 82 makwrk (203600+ 'jobs') =
total 278321 = 23% of cuts VERSUS 609 dnsz (1217531+ cuts) + 278 bkrp ($23.1B+) +24 homlss +78 prisn +43 kills }}